Skip to main content
Do these eight things in this order and the new person can do real work on day one. The order matters for one reason: a time entry snapshots the rate that applied on its date. Set the rate before they track anything, or their first week has no value on it.
The example: Jonas Bergman joins Northwind Studio as a developer. Tom Whitfield (Admin) onboards him. Maya Ellis (Owner) sets his rates.

​
Before you start

Plan and seats. Adding a person is free up to 3 people. That count includes staff, contractors, client portal contacts and every outstanding invitation. The fourth person is the paid wall. See Seats.

​
Who does what

​
The checklist

1

Tom invites Jonas

Send the invitation to his work email and pick his role at the same time.Every role can be invited except Owner. A Client can only be invited from the client company’s own page, because a portal contact has to belong to a company.→ Invite a member · Pending invitations
An open invitation is access, and it counts as a seat from the moment you send it. If someone never accepts, revoke the invite rather than leaving it open. See Pending invitations.
Need to assign work before their email is set up? Add them directly without an address, and invite them later. See Add a member directly.
2

Tom gives Jonas the right role

Pick the narrowest role that lets him do his job. Roles are a strict subset chain, so a lower role can do everything a narrower one can and no more.→ Roles and capabilities · Change someone’s role
Do not hand out Admin to save a conversation. An Admin can change everyone’s rates and budgets.
3

Tom adds Jonas to a group

Jonas joins Engineering.A group is a standing team. It makes assigning people quick, and it feeds supervision scope – which is what puts Jonas’s timesheets into Priya’s approval queue.→ Groups · Groups settings
4

Tom assigns Jonas a schedule

Put him on the standard 40 hour week, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00, in his own timezone.Without a schedule there is no expected-hours figure, so his timesheet has nothing to compare against and a short week looks normal.→ Assign a schedule · Working hours and days off · Schedule timezones
5

Maya sets Jonas's rates

Both of them, before he tracks an hour.Margin on Jonas’s time is $60 an hour, or 50%.→ Set a person rate · Billable rates · Cost rates
Set rates on day one. Hours tracked before a rate exists carry no billable value, and fixing them later means an admin adjusting every entry. See Rate snapshots.
Jonas cannot see his own cost rate. Seeing cost needs rate.viewCost, which the Member role does not have. See Rate permissions.
6

Priya adds Jonas to his projects

Project membership decides which projects he can pick when tracking time, and it drives project visibility.Add him to Bluebird Coffee – Website Redesign and Harbor Logistics – Mobile App.→ Project members
If Jonas has a different price on one client, set a project member rate there rather than changing his default. The most specific rate wins. See Project and client rates.
7

Priya assigns Jonas his first tasks

Give him two or three real tasks with estimates on them. A person with nothing assigned has nothing to track time against, and will invent something.→ Create a task · Assignees · My tasks
8

Jonas sets himself up and tracks his first hour

His first fifteen minutes, on his own:
  1. Accept the invitation and sign in.
  2. Fill in his profile. → Your profile
  3. Check his schedule looks right. → Your schedule
  4. Set his notification preferences. → Your notification settings
  5. Run the product tour from the dashboard checklist. → Product tour
  6. Start a timer on a real task. → Track your first hour
The dashboard shows a short checklist with three items – track your first hour, create a real project, invite your group – and it ticks itself off as he goes.

​
What to tell them on day one

Four sentences cover almost everything a new person needs. → How to track time · Billable vs non-billable · Weekly timesheet routine

​
Variations

​
Common questions

Check the pending invitations list first – the invite may be sitting there unaccepted. Then check spam. You can revoke and resend. See Pending invitations and Email not arriving.
Yes. An open invite is access, so it counts from the moment you send it. Revoke invitations that will never be accepted. See Seats.
Yes. Add them directly and you can assign work to them straight away. Invite them properly when their address exists. See Add a member directly.
He is probably not a project member. Check that first, then Project visibility, then whether the app is switched on at all. See I cannot see a feature.
Yes, at any time. It changes what they can do from that moment. Their history stays exactly as it was. See Change someone’s role.
Their member record – role, groups, schedule, rates and employment details in one place. See Member record.

Offboard an employee

The reverse checklist, when they leave.

Manage contractors

Onboarding a freelancer instead.

Weekly timesheet routine

The habit to teach them in week one.

Set up a new workspace

Everything that had to exist first.

Setup for a remote team

Hiring into a new timezone.